Kuwait city: The management of the “Al-Multaqa Prize for Arabic Short Stories” has announced the postponement of its ninth session, initially scheduled for 2026-2027. A statement from the Advisory Council, led by writer Taleb Al-Rifai, cites difficulties in holding the edition and the significant public interest in the prize as reasons for the delay.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the Advisory Council emphasized the prize’s commitment to transparency and discussed the details of the ninth edition before deciding to postpone it. The new date will be announced in due course. The Al-Multaqa Prize, since its inception in 2015 in Kuwait, has played a pivotal role in the Arabic literary scene, particularly for short stories.

The award was established at a time when novel prizes overshadowed short story collections, causing many Arab publishers to shy away from publishing them. The Al-Multaqa Prize emerged as a support for Arabic short stories, with its first advisory board comprising notable figures such as Zakaria Tamer, Mohammed Khodair, Saeed Al-Kafrawi, and others. This initiative, supported by the American University in Kuwait, has provided a significant boost to the genre.